Alarm.com Reviews

by Ms. Fatigue

The service with this alarm company Brinks has been a complete nightmare. I am a new customer and on day one of installation on 01/27 has been terrible. First of all the doorbell ringer that was installed, ring simultaneously without anyone touching it. I reached out to tech support and the first two reps tried to help. One rep even told me let me see if I can Google a remedy. After calling back again for assistance, the agents just start answering the line and not saying anything. Eventually they drop the line. I called customer service and the said there is nothing we can do, and said it with no customer service skill set. This company is very insensitive to the customer needs. Also, they connect you with a line they describe as RETENTION/LOYALTY DEPARTMENT , you can call at 8:00 am CST, and they have a thirty minute wait, I stayed on hold yesterday for two hours. I don’t think this department exist. All I want to do is cancel ! And they are not allowing me to do it.

by Sycntyrd

Please please please do not use this company! The non-English understanding folks used in customer care are inept and app is constantly logging me out of my account. Alarmcom is really crappy! Now my finger login won’t work as of today! Wow. Can’t log in via app therefore my alarm will blare every single time I come home, open my door to disarm. That alone should be a deterrent for all who are considering this service. If the alarm does not beep to give warning & time to disarm the system, that indicates a subpar system. I have been consistently disappointed with this Company and it’s services for $60/month. Not certain what they’re monitoring because the police have NEVER EVER EVER IN THE HISTORY OF NEVER been to my home during an active alarm. I have had 3. BUYER BEWARE.

**AND PLEASE DO NOT FALL FOR THE EMAIL THAT SAYS THEY WILL WAIVE 60, 70, 80, 100% of your past due bill! IT IS A SCAM AND THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO INTENTIONS ON WAIVING ANY PAYMENT NOR PORTION OF THE BILL DURING THIS PANDEMIC TIME. IT IS A BLATANT LIE TO GET YOU TO CALL SO THEY MAY BADGER YOU ABOUT PAYMENT AND TO VERIFY YOUR INFO! This Company is a lying scamming piece of... you will NOT GET ANY PORTION OF YOUR BILL WAIVED—ESPECIALLY THE PERCENTAGE AMOUNT LIED ABOUT IN THEIR PAYMENT EMAIL! Do not fall for the scam folks.

by Bus Driver 1727

This started off as a great app. But like everything in this world, people can’t be content with what they created and have to tweak it time and time again. With every update and tweak my devices have a harder and harder time connecting and setting or unsetting the alarm. It now takes up to two minutes for it to set and I’m right outside the door. What once was a good thing is now something I’m looking to replace with an alarm that works the way I want it instead of some millennials version of what he thinks I want. Because he or she or whatever their identity is doesn’t know Jack. I know what I’d like to do with Alarmcom and the equipment but I’ll be polite. “It ain’t worth spit” should be their company motto and they obviously don’t have a mission plan other then to destroy that which was good. And I did this without cutting and pasting and spell check; something their app designers need to learn.

by Teyekneestories

I’ve had the service for more than I liked, for one they changed the contract from a 2yr to a 5yr so double check their shady contract to avoid a long term swindle. The service is not worth it, a baby monitor would fair better they have plans based on how many time the cameras detects movement so if you walk out 100 times and the that’s your cap and Mr. porch robber comes on motion detection #101 you’re not gonna know about it unless you pay them more for recording 12secs worth of video. Terrible. Items were stolen from my car and because I reached some form of limit of camera use I did not find out who so paying more for a locked in contract was the next step. The camera now picks up ghosts apparently too cause I get endless notification of nobody flipping the camera on, cool if it is but it’s probably just a faulty software to go with the terrible service.

by Lucky_let

Alarmcom is easy to work if it actually connected to my camera, not much to say easy to use, the company alliance security is the worst I’ve ever had I mean awful I’ve been going back and forth with them about my camera not working, it’s been a year now since it hasn’t worked and they still charge me 59 every month, they also sent me to collections which I didn’t owe them anything so they said oh we are sorry and said you don’t owe us since it’s directly taken out of your bank account, yet it’s still in my credit report, they don’t answer they don’t fix problems and they don’t care about your safety all they want is money money money even if they are not completing their end of the contract it’s times to take a lost I will pay for ending my contract even if I never actually received the full service they promised. Trust me don’t give them your service they won’t fix anything.

by EA77077

I am sick and tired of how weekly Alarmcom will just keep blinking and saying “arming”. But it will never actually set the alarm. I’ve tried it right next to my actual alarm. I’ve tried it with WIFI and 5G data. I’ve tried rebooting my phone. Nothing. Alarmcom is NOT reliable. And you must be able to rely on your alarm. This is criminal, and our lives are in their hands.

And if you contact them, they give you the litany if excused for why it’s a problem on your end. But it is 100% their problem. My app won’t set my alarm for a day. Then suddenly it works for a few more days (without my doing anything). Do not use Alarmcom. Your safety and peace of mind are too important.

UPDATE... you all are still the WORST!!!! Alarmcom takes forever to load, and then it won’t even set the alarm half the time! It times out. I contact you all, abs you give me lame excuses that any tech person can tell you are completely false! And you won’t fix Alarmcom . Your network is awful!!!! When I move, I will make sure that my alarm company doesn’t use your app. I will make it my goal in life to haunt your dreams. I will rally people to my cause till you go out of business.

WORST. APP. EVER.

by Diver 57

One major drawback of Alarmcom is that the notifications can’t be differentiated from notifications from other apps. Being that this is a security system, it should have an option to make higher priority notifications sound more urgent. If my home is breached, I would like an alarm sound. If I leave the door open too long a reminder is good, but it shouldn’t be the same sound as a breach. The monitoring service will call if an alarm occurs, but that doesn’t change the need to have options on the notifications and sounds. That is a major disappointment in Alarmcom design. The other features are what you would expect of an app. It works and is dependable for what it does, but the limitations I expressed are too big to not weigh heavily on my review.

by Irmajs

Over the last two yrs I have had some very minor issues off and on but they usually pass pretty quickly. For the last 3 days Alarmcom has not worked at all. I can set alarm manually fine but not through Alarmcom . All day yesterday it showed in Alarmcom that our alarm was set on ‘stay’ even though the alarm was off. We had already left the house and tried all day to get the ‘stay’ off on Alarmcom so we could set the alarm. We ended up going home to set and then leave again. I tried rebooting my iPhone as suggested by customer support but it didn’t work. I also selected Alarmcom and reinstalled it. It still didn’t work. AAA Customer support was of no use. I tried setting it on through my husbands app and didn’t work. It still showed a ‘stay’ alarm on his app. Today I was hopeful because it showed our alarm was off as it was really off. When I tried setting it when we left it would just keep trying and trying until it would give up and returned to the off status. Who do I call for help when technical support was useless??

by Alive4Five

Alarmcom works well for viewing the live cameras, cleaning the recordings, turning on/off VMD rules (though they can’t be edited via mobile). Unfortunately the notification sound isn’t customizable the way other important alerts like texts, emails and alarms are.

Skybell doorbell makes a sound outside, but not inside. This means I rely completely on my phone to know someone is at the door. The default notification sound is very low and easy to miss. Couple that with the numerous false triggers and the notifications quickly become benign. Alerting me is one of the most important features of Alarmcom and it’s pretty ineffective.

If Alarmcom was updated to allow customization of the notification sound I’d update the rating to a 4.5.

by Satisfied33

I have had Alarmcom for yeas. I’m happy to say the my panel has recently been upgraded to keep up with expanding technology. The other pro is that it arms and disarms quickly without a long wait. Signal gets through immediately There are two major cons. The first is the alert sound. It only offers one. It seems to be the default of all my news alerts coming through. It would help if it could offer a custom alert so I would know it was Alarmcom . I have another doorbell maker and it notifies me with a distinct sound. Also, it doesn’t alert me on the iPhone. I have worked with trying to get it but to no avail. My second and biggest complaint is not being able to bypass one particular zone from Alarmcom . You cannot tell it specifically to bypass a certain zone. The only way to bypass is you need to physically go to the zone, open it then bypass it. It would be nice if Alarmcom would allow you to bypas, for example zone 5. You’re not able to bypass a zone of choice when not at home. This has been my biggest frustration. Please offer it as an update or upgrade. Especially the custom alerts. Other than these two issues Alarmcom works well.

by Joe's Locations

Having some problems. With my two recent installations at my residence and at my home at the Lske of the Ozarks.

With my residence, the alarm has gone off three times over this past Memorial Day weekend while I was away. Trying to determine the cause. Unnecessary police response was provided and rather disturbing for the neighbors.

With my home at the Lake of the Ozarks when I attempt to lock the door with my telephone the signal on my telephone blinks red while the door is locking and continues to blink red and then finally turns green which indicates that the door is unlocked even though it has actually locked. The message that is put on my phone says a connection was not made and with the green signal indicates the door is unlocked. That is very troubling especially when I attempt to make certain that the door is locked when I’m not actually present at the lake house. It almost defeats the whole reason for having the system.

by MON 'LAY

I have never received a written instructions as to what to expect when various situations arise. For example if I set my alarm off accidentally when leaving later on I may receive a notice that my front door alarm had been bypassed. Bypassed, by who?
I have never received instructions as to what the procedure is or when I am away and the alarm goes off and you notify the police. Then you notify me. What happens when the situation is alleviate it. Should I let the police know that it was a false alarm. Should you notify the police? Who is responsible when in an alarm goes off and the police respond the next day 24 hours later. The city then bills the owner for services not provided. Should the owner or the Alarm Company rectify the situation? Lastly, we were promised a new thermostat with remote control which I never received. I complained about it nothing was ever done. Therefore you can see why I only gave your company three stars.
Sincerely, Richard Hopkins

by Lukookoo999

I love the products and the people who sell it and install it but this particular app does not allow you to change sound on alert tones. if you own a droid it’s not an issue. Trying to figure a way around this, it seems that A fair amount of people who on Alarmcom might have security systems and be older with not great hearing, I bet they would appreciate having the ability to have a tone that is easier to hear, I need something that will wake me up if I am sleeping and the tone issued with Alarmcom is very subtle. otherwise Alarmcom is great and it is very user-friendly, I got one of the Skybo cameras as well and Alarmcom is nice for viewing who might be at your door. I got Alarmcom to monitor my 82-year-old mother who I live with and take care of and has dementia, I would like to mention that Alarmcom is very helpful in the daytime when I am awake and I have my phone on my person.

by Will T Jr.

We have used Alarmcom for about two years. While it is usually dependable, we find that some settings can change without warning, and notifications that we depend on quit working. There is no explanation of why these changes occur. For example, the sensitivity setting of the doorbell camera can sometimes cause it to notify when a tree limb twenty feet away is moving in the wind, yet it fails to detect a person moving directly in front of it. Also, the settings menu on our PC are completely different than those on our smartphones, and it is challenging to figure out where to go to make adjustments. The net result is that we seem to be continually tinkering with it to get everything working to our satisfaction, only to have settings change unexpectedly at almost any time. These issues should be addressed by the programmers.

by Nothing Like Us!! :)

For alarm purposes, Alarmcom is good. When it comes to the camera portion, I would say it falls behind other brands on the market, for instance, Arlo. The interface of Alarmcom with the cameras is unreliable and you have to monitor video upload volume, because when you hit your max, your cameras will no longer record and there is no advance warning from ADT that you are close to capacity. Just an email that you have reached your maximum upload and even after deleting videos on Alarmcom , the cameras still do not record. As for the actual cameras, night vision recording is practically nonexistent. Terrible range when the camera is in night vision, again Arlo surpasses ADT in this. Overall, I would say, Alarmcom and ADT is just OK.

by Tjj365

Great app, but i held a star back because a couple features are missing I feel should be there. The first is a panic button or being able to alert police, fire, or a medical emergency from Alarmcom itself. The other is being able to exclude sensors while arming my system. I can do either of these things from my alarm system panel, so I would expect to see them here. I kind of thought that’s where scenes would play a role for my second concern, but it doesn’t appear to work that way. Please let me know if I’ve missed these features somehow or I’d love to know if these features are coming later. I will gladly update my rating.

Thank you!

by Bagood12

I am pleased with the overall system, but have a couple of concerns/questions. I continuously receive low battery alerts at least twice per day, whether there are batteries in the thermostat or not. I put in a new set of batteries in each thermostat, but still get the low battery alerts. It this an issue with the two thermostats, or each set of batteries are rapidly discharged when installed. The other question is in regards to the door bell. When it is pushed, it is oils be most convenient to have a hyperlink to take you directly to Alarmcom to see whose there, versus closing out the text message to open Alarmcom .

by Autumn Renee

I for some reason have to have my husband arm our house if I leave my driveway before doing so. Before I leave I sit in the driveway to set it which can be somewhat taxing if I’m running late or my baby is not happy to be in the car and always settles once the vehicle is moving. There was a period where Alarmcom wasn’t following any of my arming commands via my Apple Watch nor my iPhone, but now both work as long as I’m in the driveway. My husband has set it wherever though. I think I emailed customer support. I also have tried logging out and back in and deleting Alarmcom and re downloading but nothing has worked. When I did try to find help about this issue via Alarmcom and the site I could not find any information on how to fix it. It would be outrageously convenient to be able to arm it with my watch, but I’ll settle for some guidance on whether it only works via WiFi, one’s home network, or if I need to adjust another setting or account. Alarmcom is extremely efficient, however, which is very comforting having a baby, and yesterday the battery was low and it promptly informed me via text message and my husband, it did send me a whopping 15 texts which I didn’t think was necessary especially because I was in the home the entire time, but nonetheless I’d rather it send that many than none. So thanks for your service, a couple tweeks, broader access to troubleshooting, and I’d easily give it a 5 star rating.

by Margie O13

I absolutely love my App. I use to always set it before going out the door but there were times when I forgot something and had to go back in. Now we usually set it while we are leaving on one of our phones.
The security is wonderful ! One time when my hubby hit the wrong numbers, they called me and I told them that it was a mistake and we were ok. The police called and I told them I was ok and within just a few minutes the police were here. They said that someone could be holding a gun to my head and making me say that I was ok.
So I love it and very proud of the Service ❣️🙏

by RealRadar

I had been using Siri shortcuts a lot until this past week when I keep getting the error “there is a problem with Alarmcom ”. I have rebooted the phone, tried setting up my scene shortcuts again in Siri but it is still not working. Is anyone else having this problem? I fixed it by logging out of Alarmcom , deleting Alarmcom . Shutting down the phone, restarting the phone, reinstalling Alarmcom and logging back in turning on Siri shortcuts and notifications. No idea why it broke, but there is the fix that worked for me!

by Jacque Km

I'm very unhappy and very angry with this company. I basically have had nothing but problems with this system ever since I got it 😡I wish I NEVER didn’t business with your company
I was waiting over an hour just to make an appt to send someone out to check out the problem. I they disconnected the phone call . While talking to support then being put on hold. I got disconnected again after waiting for quite some time . they disconnected my doorbell and never called me back . I spoke with support and they disconnected me too .
I now have a doorbell that doesn’t work .
I had a male person banging on my door this morning. There was nothing on my camera to see him. He told me he lost his wallet and the gps on his phone brought him to my house. I called police to report that. How does gps find a wallet ? I’m an elderly lady and I am disabled . I am home alone quite often. He did ask me if the car in front of my house was mine. I said yes that’s when he told me about his lost wallet. I have handicap licenses plates so he knows I’m handicapped .

by Witchy3

In the last week or so Alarmcom takes forever to load in order to turn on or off my alarm. I used to turn off WiFi to solve that issue and ignoring it taking forever to actually process the request but that doesn’t seem to be helping anymore. I have closed Alarmcom , made sure it’s up to date, restarted my phone and nothing works. Now I have to close Alarmcom several times to get it to finally load. And today I got home, sat in my car for 4 minutes while the alarm turned off only to walk into the house to my alarm going off when Alarmcom clearly says disarmed. It’s beyond frustrating I hate Alarmcom! I hope it’s fixed soon because this is awful!

by HOAB12345

Alarmcom is awful. Barely get notifications when the camera decides to recognize movement. Alarmcom does not always capture video. Often can not view the camera when I do get notifications. It will just clock and then eventually go to retry or troubleshoot. Have to hit retry a couple of times then the video will display but by then it could be too late and then if I go to saved video there is no video. Not at all helpful in monitoring when it does this.

Also needs additional features such as adding panic feature in to Alarmcom to dispatch authorities if you are not at home or in the house and cannot get to the panel.

by Qwerryuopasfhjk

The system is still new but seems to be nice. Like having on phone. I spent hours and hours on the phone trying to resolve a video door bell that was sent wrong and it was like pulling teeth to be able to get the right ones sent and I still have not received it. I was also told that I could put my system on payments which they lied to me that was not available. It seems if there’s a problem then you are sent to one customer service to another customer service and nobody has records of your phone calls very disorganized and very displeased with that part of Brinks system. I would make sure I have everything in writing before I would buy this system.

by KakakaKia

A few months ago Alarmcom was not the best, but it definitely worked better than now. It’s as if the last update made things worse because now there is a 3 min time delay for notifications. For instance a vid will record but Alarmcom won’t communicate that something happened until well after the occurrence. Some vids don’t record even though the camera should be triggered. All users can disarm/arm as well as activate smart plug w/o issue. The Siri Shortcuts work 75% of the time. The UI is outdated and unnecessarily difficult to navigate. I can honestly say I expected way more from Alarmcom & video system since it’s ADT, but nope...subpar security features to say the least.

by Been There, Done That...again?

I’ve had more problems with periodic disconnects, even though I’m relatively savvy about Wi-Fi, have two routers, etc. The instructions are problematic. Half way through following the instructions, I’m referred to Alarmcom !! By the time I find Alarmcom instructions, I’m referred someplace else! Why can’t there be one comprehensive set of instructions. I have 3 independent cameras from my prior home, and they work fine, are integrated into my router, and accessible from my camera. And What’s with the video quotas?????? Since when am I limited to how many videos I can see? Is just as soon take a pic.

Hopefully I will figure all this out, but not happy now.

by IYARGFY

Alarmcom runs smoothly and works great. Never had an issue setting or undoing my alarm from my phone. I do however, wish that there was a panic/emergency button or selection available from Alarmcom itself to deploy emergency services from my mobile device without having to interface from the panel. For instance if someone were to break in while I am upstairs and far from my panel, I could use Alarmcom to trigger the alarm and dispatch services without having to hassle with 911 operators/wait times by simply pulling up Alarmcom and hitting an emergency button for fire/ambulance/police.

by Shemer Home

We have been with Smart Shield for two years now. We feels safe, secure and pampered (by all of the “smart home” features that make it all so convenient and trendy). We haven’t had any problems related to Smart Shield and yet any time we change internet, garage door. Etc, they are so responsive and come out to hook up and reconnect what we need. We are so incredibly happy that we made the choice to switch from ADT. We get A LOT more peace of mind and perks for the money.

by Cutty22

Unfortunately my notifications do not pop up anymore. This is the first time in 4 years it has happen and I tried everything but restore my iPhone. UPDATE!! I logged into the online account and I guess every time I uninstalled and installed Alarmcom it made a new phone recipient so I deleted the multiple ones and just assigned my phone to the notifications and it works now. Just don’t know why it stopped in the first place.

by Itmotive

I use Alarmcom several times a day. It is so easy to arm and disarm my security system with just a few words. I ran into a small problem a few days ago. I called Alarmcom developer and left a message describing my difficultly. A very nice engineer returned my call same day. He told me that he and his fellow developers would research this issue and get back to me the next day. Sure enough, we talked that next day and the problem was solved. These guys were awesome! Thanks!!....Mike

by M Hoggard

I changed alarm company’s almost 2 years ago. The transition was flawless from ADT! Excellent service each time an “event” occurred- teenage children and pets sometimes produce interesting alarm calls. I am currently referring my first time home owner daughter to ABC. Also my other daughter will change from adt as soon her contract ends ! The $$$$$ savings are also a tremendous plus. I knew this company would be the best .....I was a client with previous company !!! Thanks